The sculpture of Christ in the churchyard was painted with graffiti. Following this incident, the church reported these acts of vandalism to the police. The church hoped it was the last time, but the vandalism has continued.

This time, unknown people painted the front door of the church with black markers. The act of vandalism took place at night.

The parishioners of the church washed off the graffiti the next day. Although the traces of vandalism were completely erased, people are worried that future incidents can happen.

“There was a pictogram and three sixes on the door,” said Ruslan Terekh, a member of the church.

The three sixes symbolize the antichrist and the devil. The pictogram is also a symbol of evil spirits.

“There was also a wreath of flowers on the door,” said Boychuk. “Our parishioners made it for the church. The wreath was stolen that night.”

For two years, parishioners have been fighting vandalism. The inscriptions have to be constantly drawn and the church monitored regularly. With each church visit, parishioners worry to see new graffiti.

“When I see such inscriptions, it upsets me a lot,” said Terekh. “We can’t understand who is doing it.”

The church community decided to install cameras to identify people who harm the church property.

Many churches have been affected by graffiti across Canada. Vandalism against church property instantly stirred.

“We had some graffiti before, but these ones are really aggressive,” said Boychuk. “This is our main door that every church member sees. It really disturbs our parishioners.”

In Vancouver, 17 churches have been damaged since June. https://globalnews.ca/news/8051508/vancouver-police-churches-vandalism/  In Calgary, people of two churches faced vandalism. https://globalnews.ca/news/8197205/calgary-churches-vandalism-charges/

Aggression against churches becomes more intense. The financial situation of the churches is weak.

“Our church took out a loan to install windows in the church,” said Boychuk. “ We can’t spend extra money to fix and wash the consequences of vandalism.”

Vandalism damage church property. The inscriptions had to be erased with a special solution, which damaged the door. The community needs to raise funds to restore the tree material from which the door is made.

“The holiday wreath that was made by our parishioner was also stolen,” said Terekh. ” The person put a lot of effort, energy and love into this wreath.” ” It is very difficult to understand that it was simply destroyed by vandals.”

“We are afraid that this will lead to arson or direct aggression,” Boychuk said.

The church hopes that cameras and the police will help to solve this problem.

Regina Police Service did not respond to a request about other cases of vandalism against churches in Regina.